Dallas off too.

[pedro]

He cant go!!! (Dallas).

I wont be a happy bunny and will vent my fury on MO if he goes!!

[Matthew]

Has anyone found any other sources quoting Dallas leaving? The internet and papers were full of Carney's departure (partly because he kept talking about it), since the Express article nowhere else has mentioned it. This hopefully means that it was paper talk after Carney leaving.

I think that it would be a mistake to let Dallas leave. He is one of the best players in our team.

Millward is saying that Aspy has to play for a contract - Dallas has one and I for one would rather have Dallas for one year than Aspy for ten.

As of next year I would imagine that the back line will look like this:

1 Radlinski
2 Dallas
3 Vaelikki (still can't spell his name)
4 Richards
5 Calderwood

Which I think that you will agree looks pretty good!

[pedro]

nice backline with plenty of pace which wins games!

[robjoenz]

Matthew posted:
Millward is saying that Aspy has to play for a contract - Dallas has one and I for one would rather have Dallas for one year than Aspy for ten.

As of next year I would imagine that the back line will look like this:

1 Radlinski
2 Dallas
3 Vaelikki (still can't spell his name)
4 Richards
5 Calderwood

Which I think that you will agree looks pretty good!

I hope that Dallas stays, if not we risk making the same mistake as last year and making far too many changes to the squad. We need to build as gradually as possible not all in one season else I think we'll start off very slow next season.

I'd sooner have Aspinwall than Vaealiki. Aspinwall looked a great prospect when he first came into the team. He was compared to Gary Connolly and can't have suddenly gone rubbish. He doesn't play as well on the wing as he does at centre, this season he's not on his best form, but who has been. He is a solid tackler, isn't afraid to run at forwards and when he makes a break can score a try as we saw last night.

Vaealiki has been a big disappointment for me. I thought we should have kept with Hodgson and I am still of the same opinion. DV has done nothing for me to show he is a decent centre. He has made a few runs and set up Dallas for a couple of tries, this seems to be blinding people into thinking he's the next big thing. You watch him on the defence he's so lazy, he doesn't look fit but at this stage of the season he should be, the way he ambles back into the line without a care in the world. His tackling is awful, with his size he shouldn't be missing tackles or being wrong footed. Going forward I'm not that impressed either, with the exception of one or two decent runs he just halts at the defence line without even pushing forward.

All in all neither of our first choice centres are playing to the best of their ability but from what I have seen Aspinwall is the better of the two.

[ChrisA]

robjoenz posted:

Matthew posted:
Millward is saying that Aspy has to play for a contract - Dallas has one and I for one would rather have Dallas for one year than Aspy for ten.

As of next year I would imagine that the back line will look like this:

1 Radlinski
2 Dallas
3 Vaelikki (still can't spell his name)
4 Richards
5 Calderwood

Which I think that you will agree looks pretty good!

I hope that Dallas stays, if not we risk making the same mistake as last year and making far too many changes to the squad. We need to build as gradually as possible not all in one season else I think we'll start off very slow next season.

I'd sooner have Aspinwall than Vaealiki. Aspinwall looked a great prospect when he first came into the team. He was compared to Gary Connolly and can't have suddenly gone rubbish. He doesn't play as well on the wing as he does at centre, this season he's not on his best form, but who has been. He is a solid tackler, isn't afraid to run at forwards and when he makes a break can score a try as we saw last night.

Vaealiki has been a big disappointment for me. I thought we should have kept with Hodgson and I am still of the same opinion. DV has done nothing for me to show he is a decent centre. He has made a few runs and set up Dallas for a couple of tries, this seems to be blinding people into thinking he's the next big thing. You watch him on the defence he's so lazy, he doesn't look fit but at this stage of the season he should be, the way he ambles back into the line without a care in the world. His tackling is awful, with his size he shouldn't be missing tackles or being wrong footed. Going forward I'm not that impressed either, with the exception of one or two decent runs he just halts at the defence line without even pushing forward.

All in all neither of our first choice centres are playing to the best of their ability but from what I have seen Aspinwall is the better of the two.

Aspy has been in the Wigan first team 4 or 5 season on and off, hes played when we had a decent sqaud, hes never improved one bit.

Dave V has played one season in a team playing poorly and has suffered a few injuries, he has far more skill than Aspy can even dream about, as for saying Aspy is the better of the two

[robjoenz]

ChrisA posted:
Aspy has been in the Wigan first team 4 or 5 season on and off, hes played when we had a decent sqaud, hes never improved one bit.

Dave V has played one season in a team playing poorly and has suffered a few injuries, he has far more skill than Aspy can even dream about, as for saying Aspy is the better of the two

I'm basing it on what I've seen this season. Where has Vaealiki shown any skill? Two back handed passes for Dallas? He probably makes less metres than Aspinwall, he can't tackle or stand in position and he dordles about like there's no urgency. That is one of the major differences between ourselves and Saints (and Leeds), speed of play. With someone as disassertive as Vaealiki we've no chance.

As you correctly said we are a team playing poorly and Aspinwall is by no means having a shining season. Last season was his first as first choice centre and he played on the wing for the majority of that, he's done the same this year. Since he played centre he was starting to get on top of his game but our recent gameplan of one man rugby is not doing anyone any favours.

I for one hope that we re-sign Aspinwall and don't make the same mistake we did letting Hodgson go. Hodgson was GB standard two seasons ago, a good strong, fast reliable player who had an unlucky year last year with his preseason achilles injury but he's having a better season than Vaealiki this year!

[Wizard_Millward]

robjoenz posted:
I'm basing it on what I've seen this season. Where has Vaealiki shown any skill? Two back handed passes for Dallas? He probably makes less metres than Aspinwall, he can't tackle or stand in position and he dordles about like there's no urgency. That is one of the major differences between ourselves and Saints (and Leeds), speed of play. With someone as disassertive as Vaealiki we've no chance.

As you correctly said we are a team playing poorly and Aspinwall is by no means having a shining season. Last season was his first as first choice centre and he played on the wing for the majority of that, he's done the same this year. Since he played centre he was starting to get on top of his game but our recent gameplan of one man rugby is not doing anyone any favours.

I for one hope that we re-sign Aspinwall and don't make the same mistake we did letting Hodgson go. Hodgson was GB standard two seasons ago, a good strong, fast reliable player who had an unlucky year last year with his preseason achilles injury but he's having a better season than Vaealiki this year!

Saying that though, the two times he's played against saints he's been one of the only players to be able to keep Lyon realitively quiet through a whole game which must show something about him.

[Fraggle]

Wizard_Millward posted:
Saying that though, the two times he's played against saints he's been one of the only players to be able to keep Lyon realitively quiet through a whole game which must show something about him.

I had to listen to Friday's game on the radio so can't comment about that, but I made the same point about the Challenge Cup game. 75-0 defeat yet Lyon and Albert were kept pretty much out of the game by Dallas and DV. Ok, so Lyon did score but it was an intercept and straight down the middle of the pitch, not down the Saints right-hand side. I think DV and Dallas have combined quite well defensively this year, better than Carney/Aspy or Aspy/Wild down the other side.